Pages

Friday, October 11, 2013

Captain Phillips

Review by Pete Roche

Heroes are more likely to
manifest themselves in the unassuming forms of paramedics and preschool
teachers than combat-ready army Rangers or caped Kryptonian musclemen.Real-world hostage situations are rarely diffused
by knife-hurling Navy SEALs masquerading as souse chefs or wisecracking
off-duty cops with marriage problems and cowboy fetishes.

True-life heroes are usually revealed
as everyday people suddenly thrust into extraordinary circumstances whilst
going about their routines, not saviors for hire.And it’s quite often their ability to endure
hardship and hold up under pressure that makes headlines rather than the number
of dead terrorists left in their wake when they emerge from the crisis.

Likewise, modern-day pirates
don’t look like Johnny Depp and don’t troll for treasure chest doubloons while
flying the Jolly Roger from the main mast.High cheekbones and bad teeth only make them look, well…hungry.Not sexy.

Captain Richard Phillips was just
doing his job when pirates boarded his vessel and took him for ransom on April
8, 2009.The middle-aged family man from
Vermont
didn’t karate-kick his way to freedom or eviscerate his captors, but few would
disagree Phillips didn’t acquit himself marvelously during his ordeal, braving
48-plus hours of captivity alone on the high seas.

Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks
delivers another Oscar-caliber performance as the steely seaman in the Paul
Greengrass-directed CAPTAIN PHILLIPS.Based on the memoirs chronicling the true events of the captain’s aquatic
capture four years ago, the biopic is a taut, gritty thriller whose quick clip
belies its 140-minute running time, and whose ocean-borne escapades underscore
bigger issues than the mano-a-mano faceoff at the film’s core.

Expository sequences introduce
Phillips as he discusses his kids’ future with his wife (Catherine Keener) en
route to another charter for a Danish shipping conglomerate.We board the container ship Maersk Alabama with the captain and follow along, shoulder-cam
style, as he preps the vessel and its twenty-man crew for shipment of cargo
(including famine relief supplies) for Mombasa,
Kenya.Cursory exchanges give the impression that
Phillips is the sort of salt of the earth fellow you’d want for a
neighbor.He’s a no-nonsense taskmaster
(it’s all business on the bridge), but on no less than three occasions he tells
his men to enjoy their coffee.When a
maritime email arrives warning Phillips of an uptick in pirate activity along
the Horn of Africa, he preps the Alabama by drilling his boys at their muster
stations to ensure their readiness.

More interesting are scenes where
we meet Somali slacker Muse (Barkhad Abdi) and his cohorts as they’re recruited
by crime lords at their coastal village.With no alternative means of upward mobility, Muse and his emaciated
brethren volunteer for duty on stolen skiffs in hopes of hijacking vulnerable
vessels in the nearby shipping lane.All
the khat-munching males in the village are either fishermen or pirates, if they
bother rolling out of bed at all, and their gaunt frames evince their
desperation like carved mahogany.The
probie pirates will surrender their bounty to their bosses in exchange for
food, but bragging rights and enhanced social status are perks they can’t pass
up.

The Alabama thwarts an initial takeover attempt,
outpacing a pair of unfriendly skiffs in choppy water.But Phillips’ luck run out the next day, when
Muse and three other Somalis dodge the ship’s security hoses and clamber
aboard.The crew hides in the engine
room, but the captain, who stands fast on the bridge, becomes the pirates’
bargaining chip when Muse is overpowered.Rather than settle for the $30,000 in the ship’s safe, the Somalis
abduct Phillips in the Alabama
lifeboat and motor for home, counting on Maersk’s insurers to cough up millions
for the captain’s release.

Mike Perry (David Warshofsky),
Shane Murphy (Michael Chernus) and the rest of the Alabama contingent shadow the lifeboat from
a safe distance after notifying the authorities.The U.S.S. Bainbridge and U.S.S. Halyburton
are dispatched to the scene but must await Navy’s Seal Team Six before taking
action.The lifeboat is completely
covered; the troops have difficulty drawing a rescue plan without knowing Phillips’
precise location inside.Later, snipers
play bullet Bingo as they try to align their targets in green-colored
crosshairs.

Greengrass artfully compares /
contrasts the scraggly Muse with his American prisoner (whom they dub “Irish,”),
the two captains becoming flip sides of a cultural coin, their fates inextricably
entwined.Hanks projects Phillips’
frustration, fear, and anger brilliantly—quite often using just his face and
voice—his noble merchant mariner practically pitying his captors even as they
abuse him.Phillips uses his naval
knowledge against the unseasoned Somalis, employs clever code to relay his
condition to the SEAL team, and even attempts escape on his own.But we’re as frazzled and resigned to his death
as he is come the harrowing, blood-spattered climax.

It stands to reason that the
United States has an economic interest in protecting its trade routes and would
intervene in a stalemate, as here, deploying military hit-men to “negotiate”
and “resolve” if only to discourage other pirates.Even Phillips knows he’s but a pawn in an
international chess game.

It’s heartening (especially now)
to think the U.S.
government would dedicate so much money and manpower to the recovery of a
single individual.But Greengrass never
strays long enough from the Alabama to shed light on the roundtable discussions
where (one assumes) it was determined Captain Phillips was at least as precious
as his multimillion-dollar cargo and our unfettered access to the open sea.In other words, it’s never said precisely why
the Navy wasn’t at liberty to simply blow up the lifeboat and be done with it,
or that they would’ve done so at some point.It takes a lot of screen time for Greengrass’ bureaucrats to give SEAL
Team Six a go-signal, when Hollywood hostage
history would simply have them deep-six the villains straightaway and shrug off
the death of a single civilian casualty: Collateral damage.

That said, Greengrass craftily
amplifies the drama with choice shots, juxtaposing frail, dehydrated humans
with heavy machinery (the ships) and high-tech (surveillance drones and
infrared rifles).The English
journalist-turned-filmmaker already has a rep for his convincing real-world
action, having trained his lenses on terrorism and espionage before in UNITED
93 and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM.Viewers may
be overcome with claustrophobia during the tense, closed-quarter segments of
the second act and wince at the myriad injuries sustained by its
participants.No swordfights or major
shootouts here; the visceral brutality of one lacerated foot or well-placed
rifle butt to the head is enough to set us on edge.In another disturbing scene, a pirate presses
his AK-47 against Phillips’ temple so hard (and for so long) that the muzzle
leaves an imprint on the captain’s flesh.

Shouting and uncertainty supplant
the faux violence of wire-fu and Rambo roughhousing; one practically smells the
blood, body odor, and fear emanating from the screen and recoils in disgust.It’s this unfiltered, true-to-life
approach—coupled with Hanks’ total character immersion (you forget he’s Tom
Hanks)—that makes CAPTAIN PHILLIPS so damned effective. Panoramic wide shots
and sweeping overheads provide a sense of scale on the saltwater as Henry
Jackman’s score rattles the nerves. 3 out of 4 stars.